Taxco

I know what you're all thinking. You went on another vacation? Aren't you already ON vacation right now in Mexico? I know. We're becoming little fresas. But hey, that's part of the deal! I worked hard for this! Haha.

We got four days off this weekend so we headed out for our second biggish vacation to... Taxco! Which is a beautiful city up in the mountains. Kind of like Cuetzalan, but a lot less indigenous :)

On Friday we headed out. First we took a bus to Puebla (Puebla is the gate to everywhere so we go through there a lot), then from Puebla to Cuernavaca. Cuernavaca is a pretty little town about three hours southeast of Puebla. We were pretty tired from traveling all day so we decided to stay in Cuernavaca for the night in this lovely 58 peso per person hotel...

Fancy right? Not so much. But cheap!

In the morning we got up, bought our bus tickets, and looked around town some more. My favorite thing was stumbling upon this square that had some gorgeous cathedrals and buildings from the 1800s.

The whole place just had that old peaceful atmosphere that I love. It was sad when we had to leave! But there were more adventures to come.

Finally we headed out. We arrived about an hour and a half later in Taxco, to this lovely view.

Taxco!!!

It is beautiful. The city has a very European feel, all color coordinated with white buildings and orange roofs. And all the taxis were old VW Bugs! So fun. The city is also the "cuna de plata," the cradle of silver, so there were tons of vendors everywhere selling silver jewelry. We spent Saturday just exploring the city and figuring out what there was to do there. Here are some things we saw.

Capilla de San Nicolas, aka Saint Nicholas' Chapel, aka Saint Nick, aka SANTA CLAUS! So this is where good ol' Santa goes to church. I always wondered!

Unfortunately, this isn't Santa's Chapel. I wish! This was inside the main cathedral in town and it was BEAUTIFUL. We see a lot of cathedrals, but I loved this one. It was so ornate and everything was plated in gold.

Another thing we did on Saturday was find where we were staying. Ashley knows some people that had gone to Taxco when there were here teaching and had stayed in a really cool place, so we decided to follow suit. And that place was... A monastery! El Monasterio Betania. Except there were no monks there, just nuns. I thought nuns lived in convents? Who knows. But it was way cool! What happens is that the nuns live in this place and have a lot of extra rooms, so they let people stay there if they want and feed them breakfast and dinner. It's free but they ask for a donation, which was really nice because we got to choose how much to pay. I didn't get a picture of the monastery itself, but here's a picture of the bathroom!

Absolutely covered in fun Mexican tiles. We loved it! The nuns were so nice to us. We couldn't find their information beforehand so we just showed up and asked if there were rooms and they welcomed us right in! I didn't get any pictures of the nuns themselves either, but look on Facebook because the other girls took some! They were a lot different than I had imagined. After Cuetzalan I was expecting them to be a lot more cut off from civilization for some reason. But they were very modern! They had cars, used telephones, and they even have a Facebook page. But they were just as nice as I had expected. I was sad to say goodbye to them when we left!

On Sunday we did some adventuring! We headed out to a big cave called Cacahuamilpa... Try saying that five times fast. The cave is two kilometers long and SO big! I can imagine it being the home of t-rex or something haha. The tour was interesting for about the first twenty minutes... And then the next hour and forty were pretty boring. But it was good!

Picture with no flash. Do you see me? 

That's better.

We love Cacahuamilpa!

After that caves we did some rafting! Well more like some fourteen year old boys rafted us through a river in a cave. I was loving our helmet lights. Such an adventure!

After all of this it was about 4 pm, so some of us headed back to town while others stayed to do some more adventuring. Those of us that went to town, though, headed to the mall in Taxco. I know right? Of course the white girls go the mall. But we just wanted to see how it compared to ours in Tehuacan! It was built straight onto the side of the mountain. Pretty cool. After that we headed back into town and explored some more. Mexican cities are always way busy on Sunday night because everyone goes to mass and then stays out for a while to party. The day before I had seen all these people walking around with these boxy strawberry things, so I bought one!

Super yummy. It's just a box of chopped, sugared, frozen strawberries that they open up and then add a bunch of delicious whipped cream and mix it all around for you. So good! I am definitely buying frozen strawberries and Cool Whip to recreate this when I get home. Mmmmmmm.

After this we headed back to the monastery, ate dinner with the nuns, and headed to bed. The next morning we got up, walked around some more, and then headed home! I'd call it another successful vacation!

Coming up this Saturday... Another temple trip to Oaxaca! Can't wait.

Adios!

Teotihuacan

On Sunday we went to Teotihuacan! (Tay-oh-tee-wah-con) It was amazing.

Funny story though. Daylight Savings Time happened in the States yesterday so us American girls assumed it was the same here and changed our clocks... And ended up at the bus station an hour early. As if 4 a.m. wouldn't have been early enough. Hahaha. Oh man.

We took a tour bus to go see the pyramids because we're not allowed to go to Mexico City (which is where they are) unless it's part of a tour. I guess it's dangerous or something. Anyway, it was awesome!

First they dropped us off and we looked at the "artesanias" - cool crafty things they make there.

All the pretty rocks they have in Mexico.

Artesanias

Voladores! They have these at pretty much every historical site we've visited.

La Piramide del Sol - The Pyramid of the Sun

Just some gueritas. 

Me, Edwin, Mandy, and Daniel.

 That's us on top of the Pyramid of the Sun. You can see the Pyramid of the Moon in the background. It was way cool! This site was HUGE and from on top of the pyramid you could see it all! So beautiful. I'm glad they let people climb them because when my family went to Chichen Itza and Tulum a few years back they didn't let you get on!

Just one of the many, many, MANY little pyramids.

Mandy, Edwin, and me.

Random side note. There were a ton of Americans here! It was so weird to see white people and to hear English! An American lady took this picture for us on top of the Pyramid of the Moon.

I love Teotihuacan!

My favorite line of the day was a vendor holding up this little hatchet made of obsidian to me and saying, "Muy barato para tu boyfriend!" (Very cheap for your boyfriend.) Hahaha. No gracias.

After about six hours at the ruins the bus took us to eat. They took us to this super nice buffet, which looked really fun until we found out it was 150 pesos per person! Which is like 15 bucks. No thank you! Our group headed down the street instead and bought some street food. This actually turned out really fun because they get a lot of tourists in Mexico City so all the restaurant guys descended on us like hungry sharks to feed. We'd have one guy say, "Free quesadilla!" And then the other guy says, "Free quesadilla and drink!" And it just kept going until we found something that looked good at a good price. And it didn't disappoint!

Plus some hilarious teenage boys wanted to take pictures with me and Betsy, so we let them. "Una fotp amiga? Pleeeease?" Haha all right. So I posed with each one of them while the others took a picture on their cell phones. So funny.

Then we hopped back on the bus and they took us to an ex-convent! We didn't go inside because it was like 42 pesos to get in and another 45 to take pictures. Unless you happen to be Mexican, then you get in free. Same thing at the pyramids! Dumb right? Oh well.

The group. We love each other!

Me standing by some giant ex-convent doors.

Ex-convent!

My favorite part of this part of the trip though was Jen, Sara, and I talking to our bus driver for about 20 minutes. We talked about a lot of things, but what stuck with me was him telling us that in twenty years of driving busses we were the first Americans to speak to him in Spanish. How sad is that? It makes me sick to think how many Americans come to Mexico without even learning basic Spanish vocabulary and expect everyone there to cater to their needs. Be polite and at least try. They really appreciate it.

Anyway, after this we headed back! And guess what we saw on our way home? You'll never guess.

That's right, amigos, SNOW! Mexico is a lot less hot than people think. It is quite warm a lot, but it also gets pretty chilly. But I never guessed I would see snow! So crazy.

It was a great day! Exhausting, but very worth it. Go there if you can!

Baking in Mexico

By now I've tried to bake a few things for my family here in Mexico and let me just say, it is a challenge. Today was a prime example.

It's my host brother's birthday today! He turned 17. The whole family went to Mexico City to get his gift (motorcycle gear), so I thought it would be fun to make a cake and surprise him when he got back! Good thought Courtney.

First I ran (literally, I finished up my run there) to the Bodega Aurrera, aka WalMart, to buy ingredients. I was wanting to try out a recipe I found on Pinterest that called for Greek yogurt, but alas, Mexico is not friendly with the Greeks. Nothing but the regular stuff. So then I settled on my second option, a jell-o poke cake. I found everything I needed, even some weird Cool Whip-ish stuff for the frosting, and was feeling pretty excited. And then I got home and we only had one egg! Poop. It was all right though because our maid, Martita, walked with me to a little store to buy some. Four pesos for three eggs! Not too shabs.

Cool Whip! ...Sorta.

So anyway, I made the whole mix and everything was good, poured it into our one and only cake pan, which happens to be for a bundt cake. How random is that? Haha. And then Martita informs me that the stove we normally use is out of gas! Here in Mexico people aren't hooked up underground to the gas like in the states. They have a big tank of it and when it's gone, it's gone and they have to have the gas truck come refill them. So our stove has been out of gas for a few days. Lucky for us though, we have another one! Our family has this super fancy kitchen with all stainless steal appliances and everything, but they never use it! Anyway, so I go to use the oven in the fancy kitchen. But guess what? It doesn't work. Big surprise there. So now I'm left with a bunch of cake mix and no way to bake it. What was I to do?

Don't you worry your pretty little heads, though. Courtney put her thinking cap on and found a solution. The microwave! We do kitchen activities in school but the only appliance we have is a microwave, so I've gotten pretty expert at cooking random things in it. Did you know you can make pancakes in the microwave? My family was pretty blown away by that one. And in addition to pancakes, you can make CAKE! Bam-o. Problem solved.

So I filled up like ten mugs and a plate and zapped those babies! Individual sized birthday cakes :)

But my work was far from done. Now I had to make the jello! This was actually relatively painless, except that we don't own a single instrument for measuring, so I have to make do. I figure a coffee mug is about eight ounces, though, so we go from there. So resourceful :) hahaha.

After I had made the jello, poured it on my cakes, and set those in the refrigerator, I set to work on the frosting. I did some research on google and decided that the easiest thing to do would be to just mix in some of the liquidy jello to the "cool whip" and call it good. So I did just that, put that in the fridge as well to set up, and went and took a shower. Then I came back, frosted everything, and voila!

The many shapes and sizes of the birthday cake.

It turned out quite all right if I do say so myself! Except that it wasn't until I finished everything that I realized that I had just made a bunch of pink cake for my 17-year-old brother. Haha sorry Chucho. I was just following my girly instincts! He's not back from Mexico City yet though, so I'll have to tell you what his response is.

So the point is, baking here is hard! Even when there is gas, it's a gas oven in Celsius, so that's different. Then normal ingredients are hard to find. Then you have no measurements. But it's ok! They're always really excited to have something weird and American even if it turns out sorta Mexi because that's all you can find. I can't wait to make normal things when I get home though! I will certainly know how to utilize a microwave if I need to!

Take advantage of all your American stuff and bake something! Right now! And then send me some.

Update

Just an update on how things are going.

First, my kids are crazy. Just watch.

But even though they whine incessantly and go a little crazy, we still love each other.

Adrian, Jose Alberto, and Erick. 

Two of my boys made this for me! And Erick photo bombed to act like he was part of it. Hahaha.

In other news... I've been here almost two months! Can you believe it? I most certainly can't. That means I'm half way! When did that happen?

Love you all!

Giant Nails, Oaxaca, and Mole

So last week, Thursday I think, our mom paid for Bonnie and I to get acrylic nails. They're pretty cheap here in Mexico I guess. 

There they are!

I know what you're thinking. "Those are so Courtney!" Haha no. I was expecting some nice elegant little  French tips. But all she pulled out was glitter! So I picked some not too crazy pink stuff. And then she added a bunch of other stuff to it! And now I have a fiesta on my fingers. And when she suggested I pick 'dos' for the length I didn't realize what I was in for! They are very extravagant, quite Mexican, and they make daily life challenging in ways I never imagined. But hey, my little ninos love to look at them! So that's a plus.

Anyway, last weekend we went to Oaxaca! We traveled there with our ward to go to the Oaxaca temple.

Quick grateful blurb. We are so lucky in Utah and Idaho to live in a place where temples are so accessible! These members have to dedicate a whole day and over 200 pesos, which is a lot for some of them, to get there. Be grateful you have a temple and GO TO IT!

Anyway, it was beautiful and a great chance to feel the spirit of the House of the Lord. I didn't take any pictures,  but here's what the Oaxaca temple looks like.

It was great! After this the other teachers stayed in Oaxaca for the weekend, but I've been feeling a little like a money spending machine, so I chose to head back home and spend time with my family. I'm really glad I did! I had a way fun time just hanging out with them.

Minus the fact that I had to take the bus home alone with my ward. And sit by some guy that was very interested in my life and wouldn't leave me alone! I may or may not have pretended to be asleep for two  hours so I wouldn't have to talk to him :)

On Saturday after I got home they fed me and we just chilled. Then on Sunday we did some fun stuff! I feel really guilty because we always go out on Sundays here. But I don't want to be like, "Hey, sorry to rain on your life-long family parade, but we're going to have to change things." Sooo... I just go along with it. Anyway! After I got home from church we tried to go to mass. (By the way... Mass is boring. Especially in Spanish. But I love my family so I go with them! Haha.) But the one we tried to go to was packed. It was ok though because we ran into this on our way out!

Yes indeed, that is a man.

Ok. Not this exactly. It was a parade. But there were a lot of these in the parade. Odd. And yes they did all try to dirty dance with me. Embarrassing. After this we went out to lunch at one of my dad's client's restaurants. (He's a lawyer). We had mole poblano, which is a very typical dish in this area and looks something like this.

That's from the internet, so the mole I've seen looks a little different. But still just as unappetizing. It actually tastes really good though! It's a thick dark sauce that has lots and lots of ingredients, including chocolate and chile and it goes on top of pork. Funny story though, apparently our family lets us eat like pigs and we didn't even know! Because I thought I knew pretty well how to eat this stuff. Until we were at the restaurant and my mom sats, "Diana, teach Courtney how to eat that please." Hahahaha. I was glad to learn. It's a delicate process of scooping out the fat, pulling the meat off the bone, tearing up your tortilla, and using your spoon to push food into the tortilla and then put that in your mouth. If you do it right your hands stay really clean! But I'm a guerita and still get quite dirty. But that's what napkins are for!

After this we went to Penafiel! Which is a soda factory where they use mineral water that comes out right here in Tehuacan! It was pretty cool.

Diana took this picture while we were there haha. People here LOVE blue eyes. Everywhere I go people comment about them. So funny. Yesterday a lady we were buying strawberries from told me they were beautiful and gave me a free apple though! And another guy cut my hair for free just because he wanted to touch it. Hahaha. But hey when every single person has black hair and dark brown eyes, I stick out pretty bad.

My family! <3

It was pretty cool, we walked through a bunch of underground tunnels and drank some water and yeah! Then we went to mass, spent some time in the park, and came home! Very fun.

Love you all!

Vacacion Numero Dos: Cuetzalan

This is a tad late. I had been putting off posting but then one of my lovely sisters chastised me so I thought I better get on it! Haha. Last weekend we got four days off so we went on our first long-ish vacation. To a little town called Cuetzalan (And that's CuetZAlan, not CUETzalan... pronunciation is everything hahaha. Or so the locals tell us). Anyway, it's this little city WAY up in the mountains. We took a two hour bus to Puebla, then another three and a half hour bus to Cuetzalan. Luckily none of us got car sick on the long windy road, but a poor little child definitely threw up in his sweatshirt. Yum.

I didn't take a lot of pictures on this vacation because I was afraid my batteries were going to run out, plus it's a huge pain to have six girls stopping to take pictures of everything haha. But here are some that I did take of the city! It's BEAUTIFUL.

Us with just one of the spectacular views.

The gazebo in the centro.

La catedral (The cathedral)!

This city was seriously one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It was like stepping back in time 150 years. We saw tons of little teeny indigenous women walking around barefoot... so cool. And the feeling of the city was just overall magical. Haha I hate to use that term because every time we said anything about Cuetzalan before going people told us, "Oh, it's a magical place." "So magical." "It's like magic." We were a little skeptical about all this magic talk. But it really was! It would be so cool to retire there.

So the first day we just wandered around, found a cheap hotel, and saw the city. Saturday, though... Saturday was bomb.com.

We found this deal where each of you pay like $40 and you go on an all day guided adventure! I didn't get a lot of pictures, so you'll have to imagine. Or go creep on my Facebook. Both are good options. Anyway, first we explored some caves! Those were pretty cool. Satan lives in one of them, or so said our guide. So we had to call our souls back to us after leaving otherwise they would have stayed there! Hahaha. And then another one went on for kilometers and kilometers so we explored for about an hour and a half maybe and then moved on. But it was way awesome. Climbing, crawling, jumping through a pitch black cave like 100 feet underground. Way fun. After that we went to see some waterfalls! The water was freezing cold, but you can bet your little hiney that I swam in that water! I wish I had a picture ... Look on Facebook! After that we hiked up to another waterfall and RAPELLED DOWN IT! I went first so I didn't get any pictures, but here's Bonnie at the bottom! It was way fun.

The waterfall

Bon Bon.

Our guide, Jesus. Or Chucho. Or Mexican Adam Sandler. Take your pick :)

Sara's ropes got all twisty! So the guy at the top had to come down and help her. Scary!

And then he climbed solo all the way up. What a man.

It was a blast! After this we ate dinner, went to our hostel, which was run by little indigenous women, showered in more freezing cold water, and went to sleep!

The next day it was pouring, but we went to the centro and explored the market for a while until we were way too cold and wet, went back to our hostel, and just played card games for a few hours. It was fun! And Monday we went back home.

A quick blurb about our guide though. He was so funny! He was a good guide, very polite, took care of us, the whole thing. We liked him. And then on Monday morning when we were leaving we ran into him on the street. And he was totally wasted! Funniest thing of my life. He kept trying to talk to us in English and making no sense and saying hilarious things. Like "You bad. Me happy!" And "Estoy.... borracho." (I'm drunk). Really? I never would have guessed. Then he told us he wanted to kiss us all on the cheek to say goodbye. Which was fine. Except I'm 99% sure he tried to go for Mandy's mouth. Hahaha. Such a good end to our vacation.

So yeah that was it! Super fun, I loved it all, you should go!

Hope all is well back in the States! Adios!

Motorcycles and Snails

Way fun weekend! Our family is super into motorcycles and this was the first weekend that we didn't have anything planned so they took us out! Yesterday we went to a place that has natural mineral water and then rode up to a place where we could see the whole city.

Us drinking the water. I was a little skeptical when they said it was clean but hey, I'm not sick yet!

Jesus, Tono (family friend), Yuyu (another friend), Bonnie, and I. Beautiful city view!

At the end of our trip we went to get some food. Of course I'm expecting some delicious traditional Mexican because, well, you come to expect that when you're in Mexico. Instead, this is what we got.

The fear is beginning to build.

That's right, my friends, SNAILS!

Snails! And limes, which go on everything.

And yes, I did eat that. I think an applause is in order. Standing ovation actually.

Yummm....

And that's how I felt about it after. Not a fan. But Bonnie ate them right up! I just couldn't deal with the eyes and the sliminess. Hahaha. Who would've guessed I would try snails in Mexico?

The next day, Sunday, we went on another adventure! After church our family took us to the city of Acatlan to see some pretty cool stuff. First stop was this salt harvesting place. The water comes out of the ground naturally and then runs down and they collect the salt at the bottom. Our family bought some... pretty cool!

Diana and Bonnie

After this we went to a government-run biodiversity... I don't know... giant garden. Haha. We went on a long guided tour of the place, but I didn't listen much. We did take some fun photos though!

Just a couple of cacti.

Fun fun fun.

Another couple of cacti :)

 Fun fact: Cacti grow about a centimeter a year. Which means that one you see behind us is OLD.

 Fun fact numero dos: I've eaten that right there. It's called nopal. And quite tasty in tacos.

Haha. This picture makes me laugh for so many reasons.

Me and Belen. Love this girly!

It was a great weekend! Our family is wonderful and totally spoils us. I know I'm going to be so sad to leave them when the time comes!

PS. I love Mexico!!!